The Quiet Heroes
Behind every plate at La Réserve Eden au Lac Zürich lies a story: tomato fields at dawn, olive groves in the heat of summer, pasta machines from the 1970s and, above all, people who work with devotion. Together with chef Marco Ortolani, we visit two producers without whom his cuisine would not be the same.
Main image: Bold, expressive and unapologetically himself – Chef Marco wears his heritage, passion and precision on his sleeve. Each tattoo tells a story, just like every dish he creates.
Image below: In the sun-drenched hills of Abruzzo, nature ripens at its own pace for a harvest rooted in tradition and terroir.
The day begins early in Belfiore’s tomato fields: 5:30 a.m. on harvest day. The heat allows no delay. Nestled between two mountain ranges in Abruzzo grow varieties such as the delicate Pera d’Abruzzo, a tomato Ortolani favours for his celebrated carpaccio. At La Réserve, this dish only appears on the menu when the tomatoes are flawless. And flawless, in his view, means sun-ripened, aromatic and with just the right acidity. He likes to check in personally, travelling with his ragazzi to meet the producers on site.
More than 45 partners form part of his network, all carefully chosen and often long-standing collaborators. The Belfiore family, guardians of perhaps Italy’s most delicate tomato, are among them. Whatever isn’t served fresh is transformed into sauce: hand-harvested until mid-September, then cooked for 90 minutes, peeled, deseeded and turned into pure tomato sugo – nothing added. Two to three times a day, 500 kilograms are processed this way, finished with the estate’s own olive oil.
Images below | Left: Between the mountains of Abruzzo, Pera d’Abruzzo tomatoes ripen under the Mediterranean sun. Right: At Verrigni, 70 types of pasta are created – ranging from classic spaghetti to smoked specialties.
The tomato sugo is handcrafted and bottled by hand.
Once a month, a van makes its way from Abruzzo to Zurich, loaded with olive oil, fresh tomatoes, sugo – and of course, pasta. But where does the pasta come from? A short drive away lies the answer. Verrigni’s pasta factory is a house of history: founded in 1898 by Luigi Verrigni, the Antico Pastificio Rosetano supplied the noble families of Rosburgo. What they demanded was more than pasta – it was craftsmanship: grains stone-milled, mixed with water from the Gran Sasso and air-dried on bamboo rods.
Today, 127 years later, Gaetano Verrigni and his wife Francesca Petrei Castelli continue the legacy with the same passion and philosophy: using only the best durum wheat from Abruzzo, grown on their own Solagnone farm and on farmland from trusted friends like famous winemaker Francesco Paolo Valentini. Many of the factory’s machines date back to the 1970s. ‘They require a certain feel,’ Francesca notes. Around 70 pasta shapes roll off the lines here, from classic spaghetti to rarities such as smoked pasta flavoured with tree bark – a specialty found almost nowhere else in the world. Ortolani loves it.
Inspired by travels to Bali, he once paired it with a fiery sauce and coconut. ‘Chefs are our best ambassadors,’ Francesca smiles – a sentiment Marco proves with every plate. Marco has known Francesca for 15 years: they met during his London days under renowned chef Alberico Penati and have continued their friendship and partnership. From Penati, Marco learned a lesson that still defines his cooking: to express Italian cuisine authentically, you must work with the very best ingredients.
Images below | Left: The Abruzzo region in the evening hours evokes long days of artisanal labour. Right: Marco Ortolani at Pasta Verrigni: This is where the journey of his dishes begins.
Words Swenja WilLms
Images Elena Steness
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